Jack Burden in the checkered overcoat.
All the King’s Men
This novel is a great work of literature if you can get past the slow start. The first 100 pages were a struggle before it starts to make sense. Then you realize those earlier pages contained important information.
Sometimes literature can expose universal truths that data and polling cannot. I read this novel at the beginning of President Obama’s first term and found one passage that stuck in my mind when trying to make sense of the hostility and obstruction he faced.
The narrator of the novel All the King’s Men, named Jack Burden, is a white man from a small southern town. The events in the book take place in the 1930’s when Jack is middle aged. Parts of the book go back to Jack’s childhood, which shaped his present. His father was the poorest farmer in town. His crops always failed and his livestock never thrived. This led to alcoholism and the familiar cycle described in the Little Prince. Where one drinks because they are unhappy and unhappy because they drink.
Jack and his father periodically drove in their old pickup truck down a section of highway to a weekly activity. They passed a farm owned by a black man who was a former share-cropper who saved enough money to purchase the land. Over the years it was clear to anyone driving that section of highway that this black farmer was thriving. His fields became better irrigated, his livestock herds grew in population and health. He was a success story.
The young Jack marveled that the gradual improvements to the farm. His father on the other hand grumbled under his breath for reasons Jack did not understand. One morning as they drove that section of highway there was a traffic backup which was rare in the 1930’s. They could see police cars and a crowd in the field off the road. As they drew closer Jack saw that all the cows and pigs were dead and burned along with all the nearby fields. Something terrible had happened. The black farmer was sobbing while talking to the police. Everything he worked for was destroyed in the dark of night.
Jack in shock turned to his father for some explanation. The expression on his father’s face was unexpected; it was pure satisfaction. In an instant Jack knew his father was responsible. Jack’s face was asked his father “why”? His father answered in paraphrase “Son if you ain’t no better than a black man what good are you?” Jack looked at his father with pity. His father would destroy another man’s livelihood to lessen his own self loathing. He had so little self worth that his only source of pride was being better than a class of people who had been held back by slavery and Jim Crow laws.
I thought of this passage during Obama’s 8 years. I thought of it when he was obstructed, when Joe Wilson lost control and yelled “You Lie” at a televised State of the Union for God’s sake, when he was disrespected by Trump and Putin. He rose to the highest office despite the roadblocks and did so with honor and class. He surpassed average white men struggling in mediocrity in a new global economy that funneled wealth to the top tier of elites. The grumbling undercurrents fed the front men like Joe Wilson and Trump.
Poverty and economic insecurity only exacerbate racism. Providing security would surely reduce these bad impulses.
These same factors are relevant in other environments. Chicago has a real problem with gang violence. That is also a response to economic stress and low self worth. Chicago has the additional issue of systemic racial discrimination.
The Great Twitch
Jack Burden develops his own pessimistic theory of human existence through his career as a political reporter. He calls it the Great Twitch. Like the frog leg he dissected in biology class that twitched to the knife even though the frog was dead, we humans are just reacting to external stimulus. Despite our intelligence and sense of free will, we have as much control as a dead frog’s leg. Our reaction is predictable, it causes predictable reactions in others, who then cause us to react. The world is in one constant chain-reaction of predictable human behavior. The Great Twitch. Jack views all the people in his life and their moral failings as simple wired in responses to circumstance. He neither condemns nor praises. It’s an extreme nihilistic view.
Economic Justice
If racism and gang violence are exacerbated by economic stress, or twitch responses to stimulus, it would be logical to prioritize economic security as a key pillar of our Party. Democrats have done some great work on this front. Equality (combating discrimination) has a large economic component. Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, ACA, living wages, all help provide economic security.
The one area we have failed to address is Economic Justice. The Billionaires, Wall Street, and Corporations began influencing Democrats in the 1970’s. They already owned the Republicans. Protections of workers fell to the wayside as Congress increasingly followed the wishes of their new donors. More on this below.
Republicans Harness Racism to Mask The Real Enemy
Nixon and his advisers developed the Southern Strategy in response the the Civil Rights legislation that provided greater Equality to African Americans. Nixon tapped into white racial fears strongest in the southern states, but found everywhere. He realigned the political parties into today’s Red and Blue States mirroring the old Confederacy.
We ask why poor rural whites vote for a political party that seems to only benefit the rich. The series by pdxbuckeye points out we need to run candidates locally and ask for their vote. Local candidates promote the values of our Party in language locals understand. Local candidates can combat false narratives of the Right Wing Media.
They aren’t voting against their self-interest, they are voting for the political party that shows interest in them.
There is some truth in that. Republican coded language is also a factor. It touches on vulnerabilities to get the desired reaction, the Twitch.
Starting with Nixon, Republican’s used coded language to nurse poor white economic grievances. They steer the anger and rage away from the true cause, the 1% and Republican policy, and direct the anger at the “others”. People in economic stress are susceptible to manipulation by fear. Lack of education, health care, declining job prospects makes it all the easier to pull off the misdirection. There could be method to this madness. If you keep these people poor, economically precarious, and uneducated, they are easier to manipulate. This works to keep Republicans in office and protects the Plutocracy.
If poor rural whites voted for Democrats, as Dr. King envisioned in his Poor Peoples Campaign, we would win in landslides and could break up the Plutocracy. Don’t think for a second the Elites aren’t aware of this.
The Democratic Party Shift
The situation is compounded by simultaneous actions by Democrats who abandoned their opposition to big Finance. This transformation began in the 1970’s is described in How Democrats Killed their Populist Soul. In subsequent decades the Party moved closer to Milton Friedman’s philosophies of self-regulating markets, unfettered mergers and acquisitions, banking mixed with financial speculation. This made the two parties almost indistinguishable on many economic concerns. With this line blurred it was easier for Republicans to motivate poor rural whites to vote on resentments rather than their wallets. Democrats were taking Wall Street money just like Republicans and voters knew it.
Without strong Democratic opposition, the economy began to shape up as the Corporations and 1% envisioned. It became a Plutocracy where the wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few, and the wealth is used to control our political institutions and both Parties. The political influence is used to prevent reforms.
This resulted in top tier tax rates dropping from 90% to under 30%. All sorts of loopholes found their way inserted into the tax codes. They off-shored jobs for no other reason than cheap exploitable labor and weak environmental laws. They accelerated the decline of labor unions, which reduced wages for everyone. Monopolies were allowed to merge and acquire at will, giving them unprecedented power in determining wages, and prices consumers pay. These monopolies buy up any competitor with a better product. They use all this power to influence politics. Then there’s the Banking system where speculation was allowed to merge with traditional savings, resulting in worldwide catastrophic failures leading to taxpayer bailouts and further concentrations of wealth. Then the final insult is that the Plutocrats complain about budget deficits and the need to cut social programs.
You get the picture. People are critical of Democrats on Economic Justice and it is deserved. Republicans aren’t going to fight for it. It must come from Democrats. We failed and need a course correction.
Plutocrats Play Both Sides
On the Republican side, the Plutocrat’s try to keep poor rural whites motivated by racial resentment. It keeps them from voting for their self interest, Economic Justice. It prevents them from joining Democrats. This benefits the Plutocracy.
On the Democratic side, an economic reformer with a strong Civil Rights record is slandered as a misogynist and weak on equality. This attack is used on Sanders routinely even though it doesn’t match his record. It is designed to discredit the reformer to protect the Plutocracy. I’m curious what the attack on Elizabeth Warren will be if she runs for President. There’s probably a think tank scratching their heads this very minute trying to come up with something.
Economic Justice is attacked by both party establishments.
Soviet Union Influence on Capitalists
There is a line of reasoning that capitalists kept a lid on greed during the Cold War because of the ideological war with Communism. Democracies were competing for the hearts and minds of developing nations. Our elites didn’t want to confirm the negative critiques of capitalism by Karl Marx. With the threat of Communism gone, the Elites took off all restraints and proved him right. The Plutocracy went into overdrive with the fall of the Soviet Union. It could be coincidence but interesting to consider.
There also seems to be a trend where Plutocrats across the globe seem more loyal to each other than the nations they reside.
Concurrent Events Linked for Politics
Advances in Equality happened at the same time as the rise of Income Inequality. These concurrent trends were not directly linked, one didn’t have to cause the other. Republicans manipulate rural white voters by linking these trends. They are told increased opportunities of minority groups result in lower wages. When in fact it has nothing to do with Equality, but has everything to do with weakening labor unions, offshoring jobs, and monopolistic business practices.
You will see a similar mirror image argument from the Wall Street Democrats. They assert that becoming better on Economic Justice (getting tough on Wall Street) means becoming weaker on Equality. This has the same aim of protecting the Plutocracy by creating fear and uncertainty at changing the status quo.
The most recent global financial crisis happened at the same time as increased immigration in Europe and America. Right wing politicians try to blame the economic distress on immigrants to distract from the role Plutocrats had in destroying the world economy.
Better Angels
If the Democratic Party returned to policies that: favored workers over corporations, that broke up monopolies in business and banking, that taxed the rich to pay for broadly shared investment, we would have a message that resonated. We would have a complete platform. We’d be the Party of Equality, Economic Justice, Environment, Education, and Healthcare.
We live in a post Occupy Wall Street world described in The Precariat where people of all political stripes and non-voters are aware the game is rigged by the 1%. They want to hear someone believable lay out plans to fix the economy.
We win elections by motivating loyal Democrats to vote in record numbers. We win by getting non-voters to get past apathy and inertia to take part in something they believe in. We win by converting a small number of people who voted for the opposition to vote for Democrats by speaking to their concerns.
Economic Justice is the missing ingredient that speaks to all these demographics. Taking money and power back from the 1%.
We can no longer pretend ties to Wall Street cause no harm. Voters know these donors pull the strings in Washington. Good legislation is watered down by corporate lobbyists threatening our office holders with depriving them of re-election funds. This erodes our credibility when we try to tell people we favor workers over corporations. It simply cannot be true if you follow the money. You cannot serve two masters.
In times of scarcity people naturally turn on each other, fighting for scraps. If we help people take care of basic needs they are less angry and insecure. Their minds open to new ideas. The Better Angels prevail.
All the money we need for Economic Justice is there. The money is hiding in offshore accounts, it’s withheld each year with Plutocrats paying historically low tax rates.
